New User - Creating Source/Citation entries

[Ron Siem 0]

I am a new user to TMG. I have been using 2 primary web sites (Ancestry.Com and Old Fulton Newspapers.Com) to gather Census and newspaper articles/obituaries for family members. I am unclear on how to create the Source and Citation and Respositories for these items. The Census records from Ancestry are really from the National Archives.

 

1) My citation will show the roll/page/district information but is the source the National Archives or Ancestry.com?

 

2) How do I put the source as the National Archives but mention somewhere in either the citation or source that the census records were viewed/obtained thru Ancestry.Com?

 

I forgot to mention that I plan on most Census and Newspaper sources to be input as a "Lumper" (i.e. one source per newspaper with the details of the newspaper in the citation)

 

I have obituaries downloaded in PDF files from Old Fulton Newspapers website.

 

3) Is the repository the website and how to input the website as a repository?

The source will be the actual newspaper with the citation referencing the date/page/column of where the obituary was found in the newspaper.

 

4) Where do I put the actual text of the obituary? Do I put it in the Death tag memo field or in the citation memo field?

5) Do reports get affected by where the obituary text is input (question above)?

 

I am using external exhibit folders and keeping the PDF files of the newspapers/obituaries in that folder.

 

6) Should I be putting the text of the obituary as part of the exhibit log (Properties -> Description tab -> Description field? or in the Caption field?

 

7) Are exhibits attached to any tags or just to specific kinds of tags (event tags)?

 

8) It appears that exhibits can be associated to sources and repositories. Can exhibits be attached to citations?

 

9) For scanned photographs, I have added a text box with the caption/photo information as part of the photo file itself. Should I input the caption into the Exhibit Caption field also? Does the caption field data appear on any reports?

 

I would appreciate help in understanding these concepts and how to use TMG to the best advantage.

 

Thanks.

 

Ron Siem

[Terry Reigel 0]

I am a new user to TMG.

Welcome!

 

I have been using 2 primary web sites (Ancestry.Com and Old Fulton Newspapers.Com) to gather Census and newspaper articles/obituaries for family members. I am unclear on how to create the Source and Citation and Respositories for these items. The Census records from Ancestry are really from the National Archives.

 

1) My citation will show the roll/page/district information but is the source the National Archives or Ancestry.com?

2) How do I put the source as the National Archives but mention somewhere in either the citation or source that the census records were viewed/obtained thru Ancestry.Com?

I use the second method. For any source I see as an image, I view the website as a glorified photocopy machine. I cite the original, then note (in Comments) that I saw an image of it on the website. That's the same think I do when someone sends me a photocopy of an original record. The reason to do this is while you are looking at a likeness of the original, there is the possibility that the copy is degraded (or "enhanced").

 

Do be sure that the [COMMENTS] source element is in the Full Footnote template.

 

I have obituaries downloaded in PDF files from Old Fulton Newspapers website.

3) Is the repository the website and how to input the website as a repository?

The source will be the actual newspaper with the citation referencing the date/page/column of where the obituary was found in the newspaper.

Published items, like newspapers, don't generally get Repositories. I treat it as above.

 

4) Where do I put the actual text of the obituary? Do I put it in the Death tag memo field or in the citation memo field?

In my view, you leave it where it is, in the image, unless the wording of it is interesting enough to merit having it in a report. In that case I have a custom Obituary tag in which I quote it, or often part of it, using the [LIND:]...[:LIND] format codes to set it off. Otherwise, I cite it as a source but do not enter the text.

 

If you do want to enter the text there are several possibilities. You can enter it in the Memo of a Tag, as described above, in the Citation Memo of the Citation, or in the Comments field of the Source.

 

5) Do reports get affected by where the obituary text is input (question above)?

Depends on which of the above you do. Tags can be included or excluded, the Citation Memo does not print by default but can be included by adding the [CM] Source Element to the Output Template, and Comments print if that Source Element is included in the Output Template. What do you want to happen?[

 

I am using external exhibit folders and keeping the PDF files of the newspapers/obituaries in that folder.

Why? Why make it an exhibit? PDF files cannot be included in TMG reports, and are a poor vehicle for exhibits in Second Site. They are hard to get to from within TMG. It is better, in my view, to organize them in a logical fashion on your hard drive separate from TMG exhibits.

 

6) Should I be putting the text of the obituary as part of the exhibit log (Properties -> Description tab -> Description field? or in the Caption field?

Not in my view. I don't think they should be exhibits to begin with, nor do they need to be transcribed, as I said above. If you do want them transcribed, I think this is a particularly difficult place to access them.

 

7) Are exhibits attached to any tags or just to specific kinds of tags (event tags)?

8) It appears that exhibits can be associated to sources and repositories. Can exhibits be attached to citations?

They can be attached to People, Event Tags, Sources, Repositories, and Citations. But can be printed in TMG reports only when attached to People and Tags. They can be embedded or linked in sites created with Second Site when attached to any of these. In my view, attaching them to anything other than People or Tags only makes sense if you expect to use them in Second Site.

 

9) For scanned photographs, I have added a text box with the caption/photo information as part of the photo file itself. Should I input the caption into the Exhibit Caption field also? Does the caption field data appear on any reports?

I'm not sure about TMG reports. Both would appear in Second Site.

[Jim Byram 0]

The caption field text appears for person exhibits in narrative reports output to word processor files and HTML (when the caption option is selected in the report options).